News Updates – New Orleans

CBS News Cultural Correspondent and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis will host the premiere of 48 HOURS PRESENTS: “The Whole Gritty City,” a poignant, feature-length documentary about the power of music and how it can transform - and even save - young lives to be broadcast Feb. 15, 2014 (9:00 PM ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

In the city of New Orleans, after the Civil War and into the first decade of the twentieth century, brass bands could be heard playing at baseball games, churches, political rallies—and even in homes, to call children to dinner.
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In the Spring of 2010 when NFL Films produced The Top-100 Players of All-Time series, the goal was to interview artists and other non-football folks about the best players in football history. To discuss Barry Sanders, the show runner wanted to interview jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. Being a big music fan, and something of a jazz nut, I asked if I could conduct the interview, then produce the Barry Sanders segment. I was notified that Marsalis would indeed be available to take a break from his duties as the Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center to sit-down with us.
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ACCORDING TO WYNTON Marsalis, jazz “places a premium on originality and individuality.” Personal style has always has been a key element to the genre, to the music itself and beyond. “When people dress well, they play well,” said Mr. Marsalis, 51, in an interview at the gleaming new offices of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York (JALC). He added with a laugh, “My thing is if we don’t sound good, at least we look good.” To ensure the latter, he’s got a wardrobe of natty suits, and wore a Brooks Brothers gray pinstripe three-piece to our interview (Brooks is the official clothier of JALC).

The roots of CBS’ Super Bowl pregame hour dedicated to New Orleans – hosted by Wynton Marsalis, *“New Orleans: Let the Good Times Roll”* will air at 11 a.m. game day, Feb. 3, as part of the network’s seven-hour pre-kickoff package – reach back to a recorded piece Marsalis did for the network a few hours before the New Orleans Saints’ victory in Super Bowl XLIV.